Taking New Rig to Baja Tommorow

[MH_Stevens]

I've put a thousand miles on the new Cruiser with no mishaps so tommorow we are off to drive the beasty over the washboarded and pot-holed back roads of Baja.

This is what I have done in preparedness:

-Put Mobil 1 in engine
-Changed twice, but not flushed tranny fluid
-Changed transfer case oil (existing oil looked too thin)
-Changed oil in diffs
-Added grease to nearly fill steering knuckles
-Greased drive shafts UV joints and splines
-Changed PS fluid
-Flushed rad and refilled with new red

When and if back, I will give some pics of the rig and a trip report. Wish me well.

 

[Hltoppr]

You'll have a blast!

Cheers!

-H-

 

[e9999]

I've put a thousand miles on the new Cruiser with no mishaps so tommorow we are off to drive the beasty over the washboarded and pot-holed back roads of Baja.

This is what I have done in preparedness:

-Put Mobil 1 in engine
-Changed twice, but not flushed tranny fluid
-Changed transfer case oil (existing oil looked too thin)
-Changed oil in diffs
-Added grease to nearly fill steering knuckles
-Greased drive shafts UV joints and splines
-Changed PS fluid
-Flushed rad and refilled with new red

When and if back, I will give some pics of the rig and a trip report. Wish me well.

may want to take some radiator hoses along, and a few other parts. None down there...

 

[Buckru]

Make sure you didnt overfill the the drive shafts with grease. Can lead to bad things.

 

[MH_Stevens]

I heard about the over filling. With the UV joints I add grease until it emerges all around the joint. With the spline how can you tell when you don't know what is in threr already? I probably gave the splines 6-8 shots. What damage does over greasing the splines do?

 

[IdahoDoug]

You're good with 6-8 shots. The key to look for is when the shaft begins to elongate from hydraulic pressure due to your entering grease. Stop. After a greasing, I carefully drive it around the block to relieve the pressure on some gentle bumps. If you loaded up for Baja tonight without driving it, then slammed out the driveway, you could exert tremendous force on the center diff bushings and bearings. The shaft is angled down, and when the suspension moves upward (such as load or bump) it must compress. If it's packed full, it cannot purge the grease fast enough.

DougM

 

[Boston Mangler]

Bring at least one spare fuel filter!

I am jealous, i wanna go back!

I just got back from baja and had a blast!